Waymo has restored its autonomous ride-hailing service in San Francisco following a suspension caused by a widespread power outage that affected the city's traffic infrastructure. The disruption occurred when a Pacific Gas & Electric substation fire led to blackouts, creating gridlock conditions with non-functioning traffic signals throughout the city. During the outage, which began Saturday afternoon and peaked approximately two hours later, Waymo's autonomous vehicles remained stationary at intersections with hazard lights activated, as shown in social media images. The company temporarily suspended its ride-hailing operations as a precautionary measure. A Waymo spokesperson explained that while their automated driving system is designed to treat non-functional traffic signals as four-way stops, the unprecedented scale of the outage caused vehicles to remain stationary longer than usual to verify intersection conditions. This response was coordinated with San Francisco city officials. The service interruption provided an opportunity for competitor Tesla to highlight the resilience of its own ride-hailing service, which requires human drivers behind the wheel.

Category: Autonomous Vehicles, Gadgets, News, Technology, Transportation